Download or read book Berenice II and the Golden Age of Ptolemaic Egypt written by Dee L. Clayman and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2014 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Berenice II (c. 264-221 BCE), daughter of King Magas of Cyrene and wife of Ptolemy III Euergetes, came to embody all the key religious, political, and artistic ideals of Ptolemaic Alexandria. Though she arrived there nearly friendless, with the taint of murder around her, she became one of the most accomplished and powerful of the Macedonian queens descended from the successors of Alexander the Great. She was at the center of a group of important poets and intellectuals associated with the Museum and Library, not the least of which was Callimachus, the most important poet of the age. These men wrote poems not just for her, but about her, and their eloquent voices projected her charisma widely across the Greek-speaking world. Though the range of Berenice's interests was impressive and the quantity and quality of the poetry she inspired unparalleled, today she is all but known. Assimilating the scant and scattered evidence of her life, Dee L. Clayman presents a woman who was more powerful and fascinating than we had previously imagined. Berenice II and the Golden Age of Ptolemaic Egypt offers a portrait of a woman who had access to the cultural riches of both Greece and Egypt and who navigated her way carefully through the opportunities and dangers they presented, ultimately using them to accrue unprecedented honors that were all but equal to those of the king.
Download or read book Postcolonial Amazons written by Walter Duvall Penrose Jr. and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016-10-27 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scholars have long been divided on the question of whether the Amazons of Greek legend actually existed. Notably, Soviet archaeologists' discoveries of the bodies of women warriors in the 1980s appeared to directly contradict western classicists' denial of the veracity of the Amazon myth, and there have been few concessions between the two schools of thought since. Postcolonial Amazons offers a ground-breaking re-evaluation of the place of martial women in the ancient world, bridging the gap between myth and historical reality and expanding our conception of the Amazon archetype. By shifting the center of debate to the periphery of the region known to the Greeks, the startling conclusion emerges that the ancient Athenian conception of women as weak and fearful was not at all typical of the region of that time, even within Greece. Surrounding the Athenians were numerous peoples who held that women could be courageous, able, clever, and daring, suggesting that although Greek stories of Amazons may be exaggerations, they were based upon a real historical understanding of women who fought. While re-examining the sources of the Amazon myth, this compelling volume also resituates the Amazons in the broader context from which they have been extracted, illustrating that although they were the quintessential example of female masculinity in ancient Greek thought, they were not the only instance of this phenomenon: masculine women were masqueraded on the Greek stage, described in the Hippocratic corpus, took part in the struggle to control Alexander the Great's empire after his death, and served as bodyguards in ancient India. Against the backdrop of the ongoing debates surrounding gender norms and fluidity, Postcolonial Amazons breaks new ground as an ancient history of female masculinity and demonstrates that these ideas have a much longer and more durable heritage than we may have supposed.
Download or read book Zenobia written by Nathanael J. Andrade and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2018 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hailing from the Syrian city of Palmyra, a woman named Zenobia (also Bathzabbai) governed territory in the eastern Roman empire from 268 to 272. She thus became the most famous Palmyrene who ever lived. This book situates Zenobia in the social, economic, cultural, and material context of her Palmyra.
Download or read book Radegund written by E. T. Dailey and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2023-09-01 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A princess born to the Thuringian royal house. A captive in war, forced to marry the Frankish king who killed her family. A queen, who renounced her position, received consecration as a deaconess, and took monastic vows. A religious leader, who acquired a fragment of the Cross of the Crucifixion for her convent of Holy Cross in Poitiers. And, lastly, a saint, remembered for her healings, exorcisms, and extreme self-mortification. Such was Radegund, a woman who lived through an era defined by headlong change. Honored as a "mother" by subsequent Frankish kings and as a holy woman by her nuns and devotees, Radegund enjoyed a reputation for righteousness that spread throughout the whole of medieval Europe, with later queens emulating her pious achievements. For generations, she defined medieval queenship, female monastic practice, and the expectations associated with holy women. Today, she is often envisioned as a pan-European saint. Radegund presents a new interpretation of this remarkable woman, examining her vibrant life and legacy. E. T. Dailey shows how she succeeded in establishing a place for herself within this difficult and dangerous world, despite the trials she faced. He also demonstrates how Radegund achieved a position of prominence as a woman in a foreign land without resorting to the violence and intrigue that characterized the lives of other prominent women during this period. Based on a wealth of English, French, and German scholarship, this book will equip experts and lay readers with a concise, authoritative, and accessible portrait of Radegund.
Download or read book Cleopatra s Daughter written by Duane W. Roller and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first study of the royal women who ruled in the Mediterranean in the latter first century BC, in a symbiotic relationship with the Roman government. Several are discussed, with the most prominent being Cleopatra Selene (the daughter of the famous Cleopatra VII of Egypt) and Salome, the sister of Herod the Great.
Download or read book Blessed Thessaly written by Emma Aston and published by Liverpool University Press. This book was released on 2024-01-15 with total page 520 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thessaly was a region of great importance in the ancient Greek world, possessing both agricultural abundance and a strategic position between north and south. It presents historians with the challenge of seeing beyond traditional stereotypes (wealth and witches, horses and hospitality) that have coloured perceptions of its people from antiquity to the present day. It also presents a complex and illuminating interaction between polis and ethnos identity. In daily life, most Thessalians primarily operated within, and identified with, their specific polis; at the same time, the regional dimension – being Thessalian – was rarely out of sight for long. It manifested itself in stories told, in deities worshipped, in modes of political co-operation, in language, rituals, sites and objects. Chapter by chapter, this book follows the emergence, development and adaptation of Thessalian regional identity from the Archaic period to the early second century BC. In so doing, rather than rejecting ancient stereotypes as a mere inconvenience for the historian, it considers the constant dialogue between Thessalian self-presentation and depictions of the Thessalian character by other Greeks. It also confronts some of the prejudices and assumptions still influencing modern approaches to studying the region. All in all, the reader is invited to see Thessaly not as a region of marginal significance in Greek history, but as occupying a central role in many aspects of ancient cultural and political discourse.
Download or read book Antipater s Dynasty written by John D. Grainger and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2019-02-28 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A compelling review of Antipater and his family . . . A gripping story of a real game of thrones” from the author of the Seleukid Empire trilogy (Firetrench). Antipater was a key figure in the rise of Macedon under Philip II and instrumental in the succession of Alexander III (the Great). Alexander entrusted Antipater with ruling Macedon in his long absence and he defeated the Spartans in 331 BC. After Alexander’s death he crushed a Greek uprising and became regent of the co-kings, Alexander’s mentally impaired half-brother (Philip III Arrhideus) and infant son (Alexander IV). He brokered a settlement between the contending Successors but died in 319 BC, having first appointed Polyperchon to succeed as regent in preference to his own sons. Antipater’s eldest son Cassander later became regent of Macedon but eventually had Alexander IV killed and made himself king. Three of his sons in turn briefly succeeded him but could not retain the throne. Antipater’s female heirs are shown to be just as important, both as pawns and surprisingly independent players in this Macedonian game of thrones. The saga ends with the failed bid by Nikaia, the widow of Antipater’s great grandson Alexander of Corinth, to become independent ruler of Macedon. “A great book by a great author on one of the most important of the Diadochi.” —A Wargamers Needful Things
Download or read book Boudica written by Caitlin C. Gillespie and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-01-15 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In AD 60/61, Rome almost lost the province of Britain to a woman. Boudica, wife of the client king Prasutagus, fomented a rebellion that proved catastrophic for Camulodunum (Colchester), Londinium (London), and Verulamium (St Albans), destroyed part of a Roman legion, and caused the deaths of an untold number of veterans, families, soldiers, and Britons. Yet with one decisive defeat, her vision of freedom was destroyed, and the Iceni never rose again. Boudica: Warrior Woman of Roman Britain introduces readers to the life and literary importance of Boudica through juxtaposing her different literary characterizations with those of other women and rebel leaders. This study focuses on our earliest literary evidence, the accounts of Tacitus and Cassius Dio, and investigates their narratives alongside material evidence of late Iron Age and early Roman Britain. Throughout the book, Caitlin Gillespie draws comparative sketches between Boudica and the positive and negative examples with which readers associate her, including the prophetess Veleda, the client queen Cartimandua, and the rebel Caratacus. Literary comparisons assist in the understanding of Boudica as a barbarian, queen, mother, commander in war, and leader of revolt. Within the ancient texts, Boudica is also used as an internal commentator on the failures of the emperor Nero, and her revolt epitomizes ongoing conflicts of gender and power at the end of the Juilio-Claudian era. Both literary and archaeological sources point towards broader issues inherent in the clash between Roman and native cultures. Boudica's unique ability to unify disparate groups of Britons cemented her place in the history of Roman Britain. While details of her life remain elusive, her literary character still has more to say.
Download or read book Theodora written by David Stone Potter and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2015 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An authoritative portrait of one of the ancient world's most intriguing and powerful women.Despite very humble beginnings, Theodora rose to become empress of the Byzantine Empire at the acme of its power and influence. Raised in a family of circus performers in Constantinople, she later caught the attention of the future emperor Justinian while performing as a courtesan. The two weremarried soon thereafter, to the shock of the ruling elite. When Justinian assumed power in AD 527, they ruled the Empire together until her death twenty years later.Their reign was the most celebrated in Byzantine history, bringing wealth, prestige, and even much of the Italian peninsula back to the Empire. As Justinian's most trusted advisor, she discernibly influenced his rule. Her interest in social causes, for example, is seen in added legal protections forwomen and the lower classes. Theodora's most lasting impact was her unwavering support for the Christian sect of Monophysitism. Although her husband was orthodox, Theodora maintained her religious independence at considerable risk to herself. In Syria today, where the sect still thrives, she isrevered as a saint.In Theodora: Actress, Empress, Saint, renowned historian David Potter provides a fresh new account of her fascinating life and times. He penetrates the highly biased writings of her contemporaries and takes advantage of the latest research on early Byzantium to craft the most authoritative andengaging biography of Theodora to date. It will be of interest to all readers of women's history and ancient history.
Download or read book Monica written by Gillian Clark and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2015-08-03 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rarely did ancient authors write about the lives of women; even more rarely did they write about the lives of ordinary women: not queens or heroines who influenced war or politics, not sensational examples of virtue or vice, not Christian martyrs or ascetics, but women of moderate status, who experienced everyday joys and sorrows and had everyday merits and failings. Such a woman was Monica--now Saint Monica because of her relationship with her son Augustine, who wrote about her in the Confessions and elsewhere. Despite her rather unremarkable life, Saint Monica has inspired a robust controversy in academia, the Church, and the Augustine-reading public alike: some agree with Ambrose, bishop of Milan, who knew Monica, that Augustine was exceptionally blessed in having such a mother, while others think that Monica is a classic example of the manipulative mother who lives through her son, using religion to repress his sexual life and to control him even when he seems to escape. In Monica: An Ordinary Saint, Gillian Clark reconciles these competing images of Monica's life and legacy, arriving at a woman who was shrewd and enterprising, but also meek and gentle. Weighing Augustine's discussion of his mother against other evidence of women's lives in late antiquity, Clark achieves portraits both of Monica individually, and of the many women like her. Augustine did not claim that his mother was a saint, but he did think that the challenges of everyday life required courage and commitment to Christian principle. Monica's ordinary life, as both he and Clark tell it, showed both. Monica: An Ordinary Saint illuminates Monica, wife and mother, in the context of the societal expectations and burdens that shaped her and all ordinary women.
Download or read book Sabina Augusta written by T. Corey Brennan and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sabina Augusta: An Imperial Journey traces the development of Sabina's partnership with her husband, the emperor Hadrian (reigned 117-138), and shows the vital importance of the empress for Hadrian's own aspirations.
Download or read book Balthild of Francia written by Isabel Moreira and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2024 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Slave, Merovingian queen, regent, and banished widow, Queen Balthild (d. 680) was a Catholic saint to the French, and murderer and "Jezebel" to the English. She was an important figure in her time. Yet, because of the remote time period, and the specialized nature of the sources, she is little known outside the field of Merovingian studies. This book (Balthild of Francia) seeks to remedy that obscurity through a cultural biography that explores the life and times of a queen who lived at the end of the late Roman era when the Frankish elite were connected by trade, religion, and political aspirations to the Mediterranean and Byzantine world. Balthild was a slave bought for a "low price" who, as queen regent, prohibited the slave trade in her kingdom and undertook policies aimed at mitigating the suffering of those who, like herself, had suffered dislocation from home and the lack of protection. The documentary and material sources for the life and times of this seventh-century queen are exceptionally well preserved. Indeed, as a result of new scientific methods and new approaches to archaeology, she is someone about whose life and environment we continue to know more"--
Download or read book Turia written by Josiah Osgood and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2014 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Though no name is given on the inscriptions, starting as early as the seventeenth century, scholars saw similarities between the contents of the inscription and the story, preserved in literary sources, of one Turia, the wife of Quintus Lucretius. Although the identification remains uncertain, and in spite of the other substantial gaps in the text of the speech, the 'Funeral Speech for Turia' (Laudatio Turiae), as it is still conventionally called, offers an extraordinary window into the life of a high-ranking woman at a critical moment of Roman history. In this book Josiah Osgood reconstructs the wife's life more fully than it has been before by bringing in alongside the eulogy stories of other Roman women who also contributed to their families' survival while working to end civil war. He shows too how Turia's story sheds rare light on the more hidden problems of everyday life for Romans, including a high number of childless marriages.
Download or read book Pergamon and the Hellenistic Kingdoms of the Ancient World written by Carlos A. Picón and published by Metropolitan Museum of Art. This book was released on 2016-04-18 with total page 374 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Hellenistic period—the nearly three centuries between the death of Alexander the Great, in 323 B.C., and the suicide of the Egyptian queen Kleopatra VII (the famous "Cleopatra"), in 30 B.C.—is one of the most complex and exciting epochs of ancient Greek art. The unprecedented geographic sweep of Alexander's conquests changed the face of the ancient world forever, forging diverse cultural connections and exposing Greek artists to a host of new influences and artistic styles. This beautifully illustrated volume examines the rich diversity of art forms that arose through the patronage of the royal courts of the Hellenistic kingdoms, placing special emphasis on Pergamon, capital of the Attalid dynasty, which ruled over large parts of Asia Minor. With its long history of German-led excavations, Pergamon provides a superb paradigm of a Hellenistic capital, appointed with important civic institutions—a great library, theater, gymnasium, temples, and healing center—that we recognize today as central features of modern urban life. The military triumphs of Alexander and his successors led to the expansion of Greek culture out from the traditional Greek heartland to the Indus River Valley in the east and as far west as the Strait of Gibraltar. These newly established Hellenistic kingdoms concentrated wealth and power, resulting in an unparalleled burst of creativity in all the arts, from architecture and sculpture to seal engraving and glass production. Pergamon and the Hellenistic Kingdoms of the Ancient World brings together the insights of a team of internationally renowned scholars, who reveal how the art of Classical Greece was transformed during this period, melding with predominantly Eastern cultural traditions to yield new standards and conventions in taste and style.
Download or read book The Making of a King written by Robin Waterfield and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Making of a King is the first book in more than a century to tell the gripping story of the rule of Antigonus Gonatas: how he gained the Macedonian throne, how he held it, the nature of his court, the measures he took towards the Greeks, and their responses.
Download or read book Celebrity Fame and Infamy in the Hellenistic World written by Riemer Faber and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2020-04-02 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Modern notions of celebrity, fame, and infamy reach back to the time of Homer's Iliad. During the Hellenistic period, in particular, the Greek understanding of fame became more widely known, and adapted, to accommodate or respond to non-Greek understandings of reputation in society and culture. This collection of essays illustrates the ways in which the characteristics of fame and infamy in the Hellenistic era distinguished themselves and how they were represented in diverse and unique ways throughout the Mediterranean. The means of recording fame and infamy included public art, literature, sculpture, coinage, and inscribed monuments. The ruling elite carefully employed these means throughout the different Hellenistic kingdoms, and these essays demonstrate how they operated in the creation of social, political, and cultural values. The authors examine the cultural means whereby fame and infamy entered social consciousness, and explore the nature and effect of this important and enduring sociological phenomenon.
Download or read book Kings Kingship in the Hellenistic World 350 30 BC written by John D. Grainger and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2017-08-30 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The social and political aspects of ancient kingship are examined in this historical study of the Hellenistic period. For the crucial centuries between Alexander the Great and the Roman conquest of Macedon, the Mediterranean world was overwhelmingly ruled by kings. This fascinating history examines the work, experience, and preoccupations of these monarchs. Rather than presenting a chronological narrative, John Grainger takes a thematic approach, highlighting the common features as well as the differences across the various dynasties. How did one become king? How was a smooth succession secured—and what happened when it was not? What were the duties of a king, and what were the rewards and pitfalls of rule? These are just a few of the topics examined in this original and fascinating book.
